Friday marked 10 years since Anthony Kirkland was arrested in the woods after murdering 13-year-old Esme Kenney. It wouldn't take long for police to realize he had killed four other women and burned their bodies.

In 2010, Kirkland pleaded guilty to killing Mary Jo Newton and Kimya Rolison and received a life sentence, but was also put on trial for the deaths of Esme and 14-year-old Casonya Crawford.

In that case, a jury found him guilty and recommended the death sentences. A judge agreed, but that wasn't the end of it.

In 2017, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters went too far with his comments to the jury. He said Kirkland deserved to die and the deaths of Esme and Cosonya shouldn't be "freebies."

The highest court in the state did not overturn the conviction, just the sentence of the death penalty. A sentencing hearing would have to be held.

That lasted two weeks last summer. In the end, the jury deliberated for two and a half hours and recommended Kirkland be put to death.

Hamilton County Judge Patrick Dinkelacker agreed and passed down the sentence.

"If not you, Mr. Kirkland, then who?" the judge said.

Here are a selection of stories about Kirkland and his victims pulled from The Enquirer archives: